There's something else I just thought about. The hardest part of consulting isn't the actual work-- it's the sales cycle. That's why at a certain point in the h

There's something else I just thought about. The hardest part of consulting isn't the actual work-- it's the sales cycle. That's why at a certain point in the hierarchy, these firms don't promote people unless they have MBAs-- because they know the people with MBAs have been formally taught to network and are vetted. It's the reason the partners earn 30-50%+ of the case fees ($500k/month) even though they're 1/6 to 1/10 of the FTEs. Anyway, the pitch process is gated right now by whether the partner knows the CEO or executive at the potential client. They may know them from b-school, through a friend-of-a-friend from b-school, through another partner at the firm, etc. Perhaps, much like AngelList has democratized deal-flow for early stage investors, something similar may crop up for corporations looking for strategy work that would let more lightweight firms bid for the work. And those firms could attract the most capable because they'd distribute the fees much more evenly. Who knows though this is all speculation and thought out in a matter of minutes.